The Business September 12th 2012, The "TV’S Erin Judge Judy and Foxmeat News" Edition

New Business Logo courtesy of Dr. Foxmeat

Last week’s Members Only show was great fun, but it’s time we got some guests back in the Business. This week we have two of our favorites with their funnies.

Dr. Foxmeat began his comedy career with a soaring howl under a full moon. He has the sharp jokes of a seasoned comedian, and a furry beard that looks like it may contain fallen seasonings. He looks like he knows the value of a set of human teeth on an unsettled prairie, but also looks like he could roll you a doobie without using his thumbs. He has wandered down to SF from the wilds of Humboldt County for your entertainment. He is a doctor, he is a fox, he is meat.

Erin Judge began her career at the Comedy Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and now she lives in New York and performs all over the world. Erin's first stand-up album, So Many Choices, was released by Rooftop Comedy in 2012. She travels with the Pink Collar Comedy Tour and co-produces The Afterlife, a weekly comedy showcase in New York City. Erin has appeared on Comedy Central, in Time Out New York as Joke of the Week, and in the pages of the New York Times.

(Any resemblance to Fox News or Judge Judy is purely coincidental.)

This is a $5 show. (JUST $5!!!) BYOBurrito, and remember, WE SELL OUT. Get there by 8 if you want a seat. No one turned away without a high five.

Manage your business on-the-go with Google Drive app updates

Editor's note: Google Drive is a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. From spreadsheets of orders to meeting notes, Google Drive lets you manage all your business files in one place. Now you can do even more with updates to the Google Drive mobile app. This post is cross-published from the Google Official Blog. 

Every day, more and more people are choosing to live online and get things done in the cloud. Helping to make this experience as seamless as possible, Google Drive is one place where you can create, share and keep all your stuff. Drive is available on the web, as well as Mac, Windows and Android and iOS.

Updates for iOS 
Starting today, if you’re using the Drive app on your iOS device you can also edit Google documents, just as you can with the Android app. From your iPhone or iPad, you can create a new document, edit an existing one or format text. And, just like on your computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits instantly as they’re made.

You’ll also notice other new improvements to the iOS Drive app. For example, you can now view Google presentations on your iPhone or iPad, including speaker notes, full-screen mode and the ability to swipe between slides. You can also create new folders, move files into folders and upload stuff (like photos and videos) from your device directly in the Drive app.

Updates for Android 
We’re also updating the Drive app for Android phones and tablets today. You can now add comments, reply to existing comments and view tables in your Google documents. And you’ll have the same new abilities to view presentations and organize your stuff as your friends with iPhones do.

More to come... 
Looking ahead, we have plenty more planned for the Drive mobile apps—including native editing and real-time collaboration for Google spreadsheets. Stay tuned.

Get Drive in the App Store for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and visit the Play Store to get the latest on your Android phone or tablet. To learn more about Google Drive, visit drive.google.com/start.

Posted by Anil Sabharwal, Senior Product Manager

What is the Importance of Change Management in Your Organisation?

Change management is one of the most important disciplines of Information Technology Infrastructure management. The Wikipedia defines change management as "The objective of Change Management in this context is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes to controlled IT infrastructure, in order to minimise the number and impact of any related incidents upon service." Change management was always an integral part of business management, but with emergence of Information technology it gathered seriousness. Information Technology Infrastructure management is one broad term which encompasses all the elements necessary to ensure smooth functioning of business processes which may be threatened due to technological problems or other incidents. It's the "change is rule" attitude (as coined by some experts) that forced these businessmen to change their attitude towards change management. Good change management techniques always help the businessmen to adapt and adopt new ways of doing business. Change management is not merely implementation of new techniques to cope up with a change within the organisation; rather it is a discipline of Information technology infrastructure managementwhere changes are managed with a more systematic, reliable, rigorous and disciplined approach. Changes are brought into system when the integrity of business organisation is challenged due to some incidents or customer requests or technological updates. Process of change management unfolds through following steps 1. Identifying the need for change in organisation. 2. Designing need specific changes to curb with the requirement of the organisation. 3. Making others understand why change is necessary for the proper functioning of the organisation. 4. Altering the organisational process like processes, technology and performance meters to incorporate the changes. 5. Managing the production and changes to ensure that customer and the stakeholder continues to be bonded with each other over the long run. According to Wikipedia Change management involves management of process related to Hardware, communications equipment and software, system software, and all documentation and procedures associated with the running, support and maintenance of live systems. Project management is another aspect of change management, which needs to incorporate its values for proper functioning. There are some touch points between project management and change management. Project management is all about handling change with elance. It is defined as the discipline of planning, organising and managing resources in order to ensure the successful completion of projects. Aim of any project management endeavour is to attain the successful results despite of constraints like space, time, changes, quality, time and budget. Every project is developed around some permutation and combination methodology. Changes are made to the existing methodology in order to avoid potential failures. Identifying, managing and controlling changes become important for the smooth functioning of the Project. According to some experts "project is change and change is project". So it becomes difficult to differentiate or draw a line between the inter reliability of project management and change management. So change management holds utmost importance in the world of business where things are assessed on the basis of their perfection and capability to address the needs of customers and clients.

Help Desk Hangouts: Visual Storytelling with Google for Nonprofits

Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.

In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we chatted with the +Google for Nonprofits team about using visual storytelling to create great social content. We talked about using different types of visual content on Google+, from photos to videos to maps. The Google for Nonprofits team shared some of their tips, tricks, and wisdom about managing a successful and engaging Google+ page, and we talked about some of our own strategies for the Google+ Your Business page, too.

Miss the event? You can watch the whole thing on the Google and Your Business YouTube channel.

Check out the video description on the YouTube page for a minute-by-minute breakdown.

Some of the questions we answered during the Hangout:
Where can I find some resources business or nonprofits can use to create compelling visuals, like maps?
We’ve posted resources on our page last month and continue to do so. Our video tutorials can be found here.

What strategies and kinds of posts do you find to be successful on the Google for Nonprofits page?
Posts where we ask our community about themselves and their organizations tend to get a lot of engagement. We try to incorporate questions and opportunities for discussion in our posts every week. We also try to build momentum around a certain theme in our posts for example about a certain product or holidays or season.

Help Desk Hangouts are hosted on the Google+ Your Business page every other Wednesday. Don’t miss our next Hangout at 11a.m. PDT on Wednesday, September 19. Look for the topic announcement on the Google+ Your Business page.

 Posted by Jade Wang, Google+ Local Community Manager

A Second Slice of Social Media with King Arthur Flour

Earlier this year, we highlighted King Arthur Flour's presence on Google+ and shared tips and tricks for small businesses to manage a great page. The 220-year-old company in Vermont keeps their flours classic but their online presence modern, using Google products like AdWords, Analytics, and YouTube.

Here's an excerpt from our previous case study:

Meet King Arthur Flour, America’s oldest flour company. Founded in 1790, King Arthur Flour is now an employee-owned company that offers everything from baking products to educational baking programs—all with the mission to “inspire, educate and bake.” PJ Hamel, King Arthur Flour’s resident writer, shows how Google+ helps the company share the joy of baking with people all around the world. Read More...

We're happy to share that they are opening a new facility — and they've put up an invite on Google+. If you're in the area, drop by and let us know how good it smells. Yum!

Posted by the Google and Your Business Blog team

Google's solutions fit the bill for Fashion Week businesses

Digital Media Rules the Runway at Fashion Week
For anyone with a passion for fashion, the most exciting week of the year is here: New York Fashion Week. But while the runway shows at the tents in Lincoln Center are still filled mostly with fashion buyers, bloggers and celebrities, with YouTube and Google+, businesses can grant everyone front row access right from their desktop, mobile phone or tablet:

• More than 30 fashion shows are streaming live on the YouTube Live from the Runway channel, sponsored by Maybelline, giving you front row access from your living room.
• Lucky Magazine’s Fashion Week Photowalk: +LuckyMagazine is hosting a Fashion Week photowalk. All week long, bloggers, designers and Lucky editors will be uploading exclusive, behind-the-scenes photos. You can add this public Google+ Event to your calendar.
• On September 7th, +TeenVogue Director +EvaChen212, and LYST are hosting an exclusive pre-show Hangout with designer Rebecca Minkoff on LYST’s page.
• Paris Vogue Fashion’s Night Out: +VogueParis will be posting “Live-GIFs” of the event on their +Page, where notable guests, models and VIPs will have their images turned into GIFs, ready to be shared across the web. This is in addition to their 3H YouTube live broadcast, available on the Vogue Paris YouTube Channel or on www.vogue.fr.

Searching for style
People are also turning to search to help them keep up with their passion for fashion. It’s perhaps no surprise that searches for [fashion week] are highest in New York City, but interest in the event comes from all over the country:

• Young designers aspiring to make their fashion week debut are hitting the books. Searches for [fashion class] are up 10% in the last month, with most searches coming from California, while searches for [fashion school] are up 60% and highest in New Jersey. [SIDE NOTE: searches for fashion class are also up 15% year over year, fashion school up 10% year over year]
• Fashion Week is about walking the walk. The nation’s next top model might from from North Carolina. Folks there searched for [modeling school] more than any other state this year, with searches jumping 35% in the last month.
• Everyone wants to look top-notch for the runway, or rather, to watch the runway. Searches for [what to wear to a fashion show] have doubled in the past month. What’s the trendiest state? Folks from Illinois searched for [fall fashion trends] more often than those in any other in the past month. Searches have grown 60% in the last month.
• Searches for [fashion week schedule] up 140% in the past month. Searches for [fashion designers] up 20% in the past month.

The Business September 5th 2012, The "LONG SETS WOLFGANG KILL THEM ALL" Edition

This week, the Business has called a private meeting of our Board of Directors. It’s all regulars this week, including our latest, greatest hire, Mike Drucker.

Sean Keane has the mind of a genius and the face of a newborn. His cheeks are like tea leaves, stare into them deeply and you will know your future. You’ll love him so much you will want to take his jokes home in your pocket, but don’t! They’re his.

Alex Koll is Awesome. The Awesome. Air Guitar HERO. And an impossibly talented filmmaker.

And a top notch writer. And a member of the legendary sketch group Boomtime, which means he can be appropriately described as the Bomb.

Caitlin Gill will make your dreams come true. Especially if you dream of really funny stand-up comedy. Or if you dream of homemade Twinkies. She can do that too.

Bucky Sinister is an irrepressible talent. A poet, author, and comedian who can also swing, snatch, clean, and jerk a kettlebell that weighs more than you do. Even though his arms could crush you, and one of them has a panther and a snake fighting on it, you will still want a hug.

Mike Drucker has written for SNL and the Onion, which are things of which you have totally heard. His jokes give comedians boners. Even the comedians with vaginas. BONERS. We are very pleased he has joined our fine organization.

Please keep in mind, this show sells out. Get there on time if you want a seat!